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Last night we had severe thunderstorms all night with loud noises.. Ziggy was very scared and hid under the bed. He was always afraid of the thunder. When I checked on him at 6:30 am he had a fever (up 2 degrees) - he has not had a fever since last thurs while out for his dr appt. While his pill was dissolving, I brushed him and his fever went down by a degree! I am sure he was all worked up over the storms. After his pill, it went down further to almost normal, and after he ate, it was normal for a short while, but later climbed slightly, and he is now maintaining a slight temperature of approx. 1 degree above normal.
Today, Ziggy is cool and his temperature is back down to normal again. He appears to be feeling great. He jumped on and off the bed several times and early this morning I woke up to find him eating on his own at his bowl (his canned catfood) - this is another first! We had a quiet night, but more thunderstorms are expected over the next 2 days! Maybe no more outside pictures for a while! Ziggy appears alert, cool, and very happy. He hadn't been under the bed for a while, but when I went in the other room to prepare for his heparin injection, I tried to do it quietly but he was hiding under the bed when I returned so I guess he knew!
Ziggy seems to be doing extremely well today. He has been purring a lot, and even playing, trying to "grab" things with his good paw and even reaching out with the dead paw (he can maneuver it from the shoulder area but it is "dead" from approx the elbow down) Earlier today, we had a break in the rain although its supposed to rain for 2 more days, so I took him outside for some fresh air but he wanted to run in the woods and I didnt feel comfortable with that because I couldn't follow him to where he wanted to go, under the bushes. So I got him before he went too far and put him near his play area in the yard, but instead he ran away from it in the other direction, really fast, all the way down the outside steps, into the house, down the hall and up 3/4 of the stairs! I think he stopped only because he saw something at the top that never used to be there. I couldn't keep up with him to prevent him from doing that in case he got hurt! I guess he knows how to go down (and up) stairs without falling! They are normally closed off from where he stays at the present time, since he has come home from the hospital. Wow, he is doing better all the time. I guess if he couldn't go outside where he wanted, he didn't want to be there at all! He sure showed me- funny little Zig!
This evening, I found him washing himself- his butt, and his hind legs, and his dead paw. The most washing I have seen him do so far.
In the pictures above you can see the right forepaw is permanently fixed in this position. It is hard with dark skin, and is not flexible at the lower joint. (It is flexible at the elbow joint however, as this area is "good" - the bad part starts not far from the elbow)
It must be a real challenge to "dig" in the litter box! I believe what he does is use the hard/dead paw as a resting support, leaning on it at the elbow while he digs as usual with his good paw. I think this is what he is doing in the picture below.
His litter box habits have been completely normal. When he first returned from the hospital, he was so weak that after using the litter box, he would fall down on the rug to rest; he couldn't even make it back to his bed and I carried him back.. he hadn't eaten there for just about the entire week he was there; they told us he ate once. He was getting "electrolytes" through iv, but not nutrition. I think they were afraid of the fluids building up in his lungs again by giving him iv fluids. He was allowed to drink on his own though, which he did. This is one reason I wanted to get him back home and eating again as soon as possible. I first fed Zig the day after he returned home giving him some time to rest and adjust at home first.. A whole week without eating is too long for a cat. I learned from Clao's vet (wonderful dr at cat clinic!) last year that cats cannot "fast" like humans can. When Clao had oral cancer last summer and had stopped eating for several days.. I fed him for the last 3 months (with oral syringe) He did everything well but remained unable to eat or drink on his own. (Clao was my other half! See his beautiful oil painting by English artist - click here!)
Ziggy has been off the diuretic since his check-up a week ago. I had also reduced his heparin to twice a day instead of 3 times, and pain medication as needed, 2 or 3 times a day.
Zig is currently resting on the bed and watching/listening to his cat video on tv! He mostly listens to it now since he already seen it before. Below is a picture from last year when his video was new. There are butterflies, birds, mice, etc.
Another good day for the Ziggy! I called one of his vets, and since he is doing so well and does not appear to need it, it is ok to stop the butorphenol (pain medication) - I will give it if he develops a fever though. But he has not had any since yesterday and doesn't appear to need any at this time.. He ate about 3 times today on his own- very small amounts but an improvement.
I no longer carry him to the backyard. I carry him downstairs and let him go by the outside door and if he wants to go outside then we go outside. Today, he went outside, and down the sidewalk where he sat for a while, and then he went under my car to rest until a train came and then we went back inside! (he always used to run inside right as the engine approached- or the mailman came! - so I would always know when the mail was here because he would run inside and upstairs and if it was around that time in the morning and I saw him run upstairs then I know the mail came!)
The paw is about the same as it has been... if you look closely at the picture below, you can see a clear line between the fur- the pink skin to the left is good skin, and the part to the right is black and hard, this is the dead part. It is easier to see the difference now because a little fur is missing in this area. I think it might be because he is washing himself a lot more now and maybe tends to wash this area most? He washes for several minutes after eating now, and also washes his paw other times of the day. The leg in this area where the good skin meets bad skin does not seem to be swollen anymore like it used to be. The odor is the same, or better than it was before.
Zig jumped on the bed this morning and woke me up- being his usual old self again- and he went to the door- he wants outside! We went outside after he ate and he got to go wherever he wanted. I followed him in the woods so that he was always within sight. We live on the side of a big hill (Phil calls it a mountain since he is from Illinois!) - easier for ziggy to walk up it on 3 legs, than for me on 2! Zig had a good time for over an hour mostly going 20 or 30 feet then stopping to rest, wash himself, take a catnap, watch a bug or itch his chin on a branch. I didn't bring the camera with us- too busy ziggysitting!
Before we went into the woods, Ziggy got hoisted to the top of that tall pole I told you about a couple days ago... he was so happy he didn't move a muscle! I didn't even realize he wasn't really at the top of it until I saw the picture. It was too high to see well, even with a chair. I bet he thought he was big stuff up there!
Another bath for Ziggy today. When wet, it is most obvious where the line is between the two areas on the leg. On the inner side it seems more skin is good (maybe half) whereas on the outer side more skin is black (between the 2 joints) with just a small patch of good skin by elbow.
Ziggy is back to washing again, like his usual old self, and helped wash/dry himself off after his bath:
Ziggy has been spending serious time every morning trying to wake me up. Thats what he used to do too. Then he wants to go outside.
He is washing a lot after eating and periodically throughout the day, and tends to wash one area most on his leg, using it also to wash his face, while he sits up on his good leg. This area is getting a little irritated so we wrapped a bandage around his leg to prevent him from washing it so much. And it also keeps it cleaner when he goes outside because sometimes it would drag along the ground like if he was going up a hill.
He uses the big door now to go outside with us. But the picture below shows his cat door, he used to use it all the time to go in and out when he wanted. But usually that was only in the morning or evening for up to a few hours. Most of the time he spent inside, sleeping!
He went outside today for almost an hour, and ate some grass for the first time. When he went in, he sat behind the big door and I opened his cat flap to get his picture.
with bandage off (below):
Zig tried for a long time and finally managed to wake me up. He sits on my pillow, walks all over the bed, walks on me and smells my face so that his whiskers make me itchy and when he starts to see movement-me scratching- he knows he's making progress in the morning wake-up routine.. He also finds my face and lays down right beside it so that instead of breathing air I'm starting to breathe fur. That usually wakes me up too. (When Clao was here, he would wake me up by making noise- finding a plastic shopping bag somewhere in the room and pawing at it over and over, this usually worked. If that didn't work he would find little things to knock off the dresser and after each one fell he would look at me to see if it woke me up. If not, then on to the next one.. Because I spied on him a few times with one eye open and thats exactly what he did! If there were no shopping bags and nothing to knock over, he would use his paw and hit the wall to make noise... When Clao was here, he always woke me up first!) Ziggy's method is quiet, but I guess its effective too! We went outside and he stayed out about an hour and ate a few blades of grass again. I took off his leg bandage later and it looks the same, or better, than yesterday- no bleeding since he hasn't been able to wash it.
Ziggy did great today! He woke me up to go outside for a while this morning. He ate some dry catfood today and last night. He washes himself a lot again. He is playing more often and range of motion with right limb is greater than I have ever seen before! I am not sure if there is any actual improvement in the leg or if he is just getting used to using the upper leg a little better now with practice. The dead part still looks the same...it is hard, black, shriveled.
If the movie below opens in a tiny window, you should be able to resize it bigger. It might take a while to load because it is 15MB
*~* Watch Ziggy playing! (2 minute movie) *~*
(I am working on adding the movie clip above that used to be here before I moved my site; I need to resize it smaller for this site. -- It will be here in the future so check back again sometime.)
(future updates may be few times per week instead of daily... another update coming soon)